


Unhappily Ever After

by Ladytalon



Category: Day Break
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-09
Updated: 2010-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-10 00:31:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladytalon/pseuds/Ladytalon





	1. Chapter 1

  
  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, not making any $$  
**A/N:** While writing _An Internal Affair_, I wanted to write the story of Chita and how exactly their relationship unfolded to bring Chad and Andrea together to create the Chadrea we all know and love... this is fundamentally Chita with a side of pre-Chadrea, but our girl Andy will have a few cameo appearances. As always, I'd appreciate any feedback you choose to give.

_____________________________________

  
After watching the city lights dwindle below them, Chad turned away from the window of the airplane and stretched his long legs out as far as he could – flying was always a nuisance because he always had to make sure he was in an exit row – he'd spent a few miserable hours jammed into a normal seat once and had never forgotten how horrible the experience had been. Glancing over at Romero, Chad saw that the other lieutenant was busily explaining to Jameson exactly why it was a bad idea to harass the female flight attendants, particularly on trans-Atlantic flights. A First Team officer was sitting next to him, but even if he felt like talking to anyone, she seemed too scared of him to even say a word.

He sighed to himself and tried to get comfortable since he was in no mood for anything but going to sleep. The officer next to him bolted as soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, but he didn't mind – he wouldn't want to sit next to himself, either. Chad sighed again as he thought of the argument he'd had with Andrea the night before; he wasn't even sure how it had started, but one thing led to another and he had said quite a few things he hadn't meant, including comparing her to Rita. That had certainly gone over like a lead balloon, but he'd been ashamed of himself and too full of pride to apologize – when she'd turned on her side away from him, Chad had stared at her back and wondered how he'd messed up so badly. They hardly ever fought on this kind of scale, but when they did, it was almost always his fault.

There was nothing worse than when Andrea was mad at him, and knowing that he was leaving for SWAT training in Germany in the morning only made it worse. Instead of getting to hold and make love to her for the last time when they'd be apart for an entire month, he just stared up at the ceiling and wondered how he could make things right. In the morning, she'd hurried through her breakfast without looking at him and had left when he had gone to walk Meredith.

Why the hell couldn't he learn to watch his mouth? Chad rested his forehead against the glass– it would be a roughly eight hour flight and he couldn't even call Andrea for six more after that. It was crazy to think of how different she was from Rita, and despite himself he had to smile at that thought; the two women were like night and day. Settling back in his seat, he closed his eyes and thought of all that had happened to bring him to his present life with Andrea.

_____________________________________

  


A/N the Second: Some of you might be wondering, "Huh? Germany? Why are they going _there?_" Here's the deal - every so often, the LAPD will send a few SWAT units to train with foreign military to hone their skills at hostage retrieval. They've trained with the French, British, and German special forces thus far, so it makes sense that the captain would send The Chad and Co. overseas to learn a few new tricks.


	2. </strong> Unhappily Ever After

  
  
  
  
  


**Entry tags:**

| 

  
[chad shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/chad%20shelten), [day break](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/day%20break), [fic](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [rita shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/rita%20shelten)  
  
  
---|---  
  
**Title:** Unhappily Ever After  
**Author:** [](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/profile)[**ladytalon1**](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/)  
**Fandom:** Day Break  
**Pairing:** Chad/Rita  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, not making any $$

_   
**Unhappily Ever After 1**   
_

________________________________________

__

Chad toweled himself off quickly and headed back into the bedroom of his small apartment to get ready for another exciting day in law enforcement. Pulling on his suit and knotting his tie carefully, he ran a comb through his hair and frowned at his reflection after attaching his issued weapon to his belt – it looked like he'd need another haircut soon. "I'll get one this weekend," he promised the mirror. Then he grabbed up his keys, wallet, and badge before heading out to his car. The drive down to Metro took as long as ever, but Chad had listened to the traffic report in the shower so he'd known what to expect. He walked past the Watch Commander at precisely 7:30 and checked for any messages before strolling down the hall to Narcotics.

"Detective? Need to see you a minute," his lieutenant called, leaning out of his office with a phone in his hand. "Hopper here yet?" Lt. Jackson asked as soon Chad ducked through the door.

He checked his watch. "Should be on his way, at least, sir."

"Well, I need you two to get that sting set up – I've got the captain riding my ass, and I don't like it," he was warned.

"Sure thing, Lieutenant."

"Take SWAT if you need to," Jackson sighed, then turned his attention back to his telephone conversation. "Are you still there? Yeah, so I told the jerk that if he didn't have my windshield fixed by the end of the month…"

Chad walked out to his desk and reached for the appropriate file, but when he opened it he discovered that the papers he needed weren't there. "What the…" _They were here last night when I left_, he thought irritably, then his eyes fell on Hopper's messy desk. It wouldn't surprise him that much if his partner had decided to take a look at the file and then had forgotten to put it back. Standing and walking around the desks to rummage in the pile of crap, he found it just as Hopper came strolling in. "You're late," he informed his partner.

"You're anal retentive."

"I'll just upgrade 'late' to 'same as ever'," Chad sighed. "Why'd you mess with the file, anyway? I had to look around through that mess you've got here…"

Hopper frowned. "It's not a mess! I know where everything is!"

"Yeah, that's what makes the difference, huh?" he shook his head. "Look, whatever. Jackson wants us to set up the sting so the captain leaves him alone."

His partner just looked at him strangely when Chad tried to get the information Hopper had been working on. "Take it easy – we don't have to do it today."

"Uh….yeah, we do."

"Jesus, no wonder you're still single."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

They worked in silence at their desks, until Chad glanced up to see Hopper staring at the book he'd brought to read on his lunch hour. "What?"

The other detective looked over at him. "What the hell did you bring with you this week?" Hopper asked, as if trying to rub it in Chad's face that there wasn't anyone in Narcotics who wanted to have lunch with him – not that he minded _that_ much; he was there to do his job the best he could, not be a part of a social club. Still, there were times when it would be nice to actually have someone he could talk to.

Chad leaned forward, tapping the cover excitedly. "Actually, it's really interesting; it's about quantum-"

"Sounds great," Hopper interrupted. "I'm going for coffee, you want some?" he left without waiting for an answer and Chad sighed, dropping the book into a desk drawer. Everyone acted like it was such a bad thing to actually have an education. Snatching the rest of the files from Hopper's desk and correcting the grammatical mistakes, he finished up and sent one of the trainees down to get an arrest warrant.

The rest of the day passed without incident before the warrant was finally issued and Chad called up the SWAT offices and talked to Romero to get a team called out to Tarzana with them. Outside the house they'd been sent to, Chad drew his gun and followed First Team as they burst through the door – he'd always admired SWAT and, more than once, had even considered trying out. His family had always talked him out of it, though.

It turned out there was a cripple inside with a shotgun who tried to start trouble, and the guy had been shot a few times before they realized that they'd gotten the wrong place. "You gotta be shittin' me – that's next door," one of the officers sighed. "Well, let's go and hope he hasn't been scared off." Chad couldn't decide whether or not it was a good thing that the area was so full of crime that the sound of police breaking down doors and shooting up the place didn't even make people bat an eye, but when they found the man they'd originally come for still sitting in his underwear next door, he decided that it wasn't half bad.

The crippled man was taken off in the ambulance and the report was duly hoisted onto Chad's shoulders when he wasn't looking, so he had to let Hopper make the arrest and drive back to the hospital to set up a guard on the injured man. They'd have one hell of a lawsuit on their hands if he decided to press charges, but the guy _had_ tried to fire on them first so what options did they really have but to defend themselves?

After checking in with his lieutenant and being told that he'd have to wait to have security set up on the man, Chad wandered around the ER waiting room and wished he'd brought his book with him. Basketball was on the large television set in the corner, so he turned his attention to the game and nearly missed seeing the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life come around the corner to the nursing station. She had long, caramel colored hair, dusky skin, and a body that wouldn't quit – the basketball game was forgotten entirely as she threw her head back and laughed at something one of the other nurses said.

Suddenly he didn't mind having been sent to do the clean up. Standing, Chad straightened his suit jacket and strolled over to try his luck. She might be taken, but at least he could say he tried. "Hi, are you Manny Taylor's nurse, by any chance?" Chad asked, giving her his best smile.

The nurse tossed her hair over one shoulder and smiled back at him. She had a beautiful smile. "That depends. Who's asking?"

He held out his hand, trying to seem taller by standing up a little straighter. "Detective Shelten, LAPD."

She placed a small hand in his, and he closed his fingers around hers in a friendly handshake. "Nurse Foster, ER."

"Does Nurse Foster, ER have a _first_ name? Mine's Chad," he volunteered, turning on the charm for all he was worth.

She laughed up at him. "Rita. Now why were you asking about Mr. Taylor, exactly?"

He explained about needing to place the man in custody. Maybe if he scared her a little bit about the guy, she'd figure they needed someone there to protect them and he'd get to hang around a while longer. "If he attacked a group of armed officers and detectives, who knows what he would do to unarmed nurses and doctors?"

The nurse – Rita – led him down the hall to where a bed had already been set up for the new patient and pointed in the room. "He's in surgery and it'll be a while until he even wakes up and is sent here, so I think we're pretty safe for now," she confided with another smile.

"But you never know. He could go on a rampage at any moment," Chad insisted. "Tell you what – how about I take you someplace safe so your life is spared?"

Rita raised her eyebrows at him. "Someplace safe? We don't even know each other."

Chad widened his eyes. "Of course we do! We know each other's first names, after all," he teased. "You can trust me, I'm a cop."

One of the other nurses called out to her, and she looked back at him as she started to walk back towards the nursing station. "Maybe some other time, Detective."

'Some other time' turned out to be just two weeks later, when he stopped by with a woman who'd been caught in the crossfire of a rival gang shoot-out. It turned out that the woman had been merely grazed and was just so hysterical at the near miss that both Chad and Hopper had to bring her to get medical attention, even if it was just so a nurse could tell her to calm the hell down. After ditching Hopper and going to find Rita, Chad secured a date for the next Friday and couldn't resist bragging a little when he met up with his partner in the parking garage. Of course, the other detective thought he was making the whole thing up. "You? On a date?"

"Why is it so hard to believe that a woman could be attracted to me?" Chad flared, offended at Hopper's tone of voice.

It was true that he didn't date much, but that wasn't necessarily his fault… he had to have some standards, after all. There were always women around who were eager to sleep with a policeman just to say that they'd done it, and he'd taken advantage of those situations more than once. "If you have to ask _me_ about that…" Hopper trailed off, wisely changing the subject as he saw how pissed off Chad was getting.

Friday seemed to take forever to arrive but when it did, Chad hurried back to his apartment after work to shower and change into his black suit before digging out his cell phone to call her and get directions to her place. When he arrived, she was dressed in an incredibly sexy lime green dress that set off her exotic features and made her look even more beautiful. "You look great," he said admiringly as she opened the door. "Are you ready to go?"

Rita smiled and reached for her coat with one hand, and his arm with the other. "As long as you have me back by eleven, Detective Shelten."

"Is that your curfew or something?" he asked as he guided her out to his car and opened the door for her, winking to show that he was teasing her.

For some reason, she took him seriously and even seemed to get a little upset by it. "I have patients counting on me, so I can't let them down by being tired," Rita said in a scolding tone.

"Um, well… of course not," he reassured her hastily. She must have been trying to play a trick on him or something, because Rita just smiled at him and didn't mention it again.

They got to know each other over dinner, exchanging anecdotes about what they did for a living, and he grew more and more impressed by how much she loved her job. Chad paid close attention as she waved her hands around excitedly and told him about what made her decide to become a nurse in the first place – he'd never met anyone so sweet and caring before. Rita reached over to touch his hand occasionally to make a point about something, and he felt warmth spread throughout his whole body each time she did it. Chad hadn't wanted to take a woman back to his place this badly since he was eighteen years old, but he knew he could never suggest such a thing to her. Not yet, anyway.

When he took her back to her apartment, Chad knew he didn't have a chance in hell of being invited in, but she gave him a look from beneath her lashes that told him that he could probably try for a kiss. He leaned in slowly to give her time to move away, touching his lips to hers in a kiss that was at once too short and just long enough. Rita drew back with a smile and hooked a strand of hair behind her ear. "So, I had a good time tonight."

"Me, too."

"Well… goodnight," she said softly.

"Goodnight," Chad echoed, wanting to haul her back into his arms so he could kiss her again. He'd just turned to leave when he realized he hadn't asked her out a second time. "Uh, Rita? Would you like to go out again somet-"

"Yes."

He grinned. "Okay, then."

Rita came back over to draw his head down to hers for another quick kiss, then sent him off with a gentle shove towards his car. "Call me tomorrow. Now, go away."

Whistling under his breath, Chad got into his SUV feeling pretty good about himself. _Hopper's never gonna believe this, _ he thought gleefully as he drove away.

tbc…

_________________________________

  



	3. </strong> Unhappily Ever After

  
  
  
  
  


**Entry tags:**

| 

  
[chad shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/chad%20shelten), [day break](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/day%20break), [fic](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [rita shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/rita%20shelten)  
  
  
---|---  
  
**Title:** Unhappily Ever After  
**Author:** [](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/profile)[**ladytalon1**](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/)  
**Fandom:** Day Break  
**Pairing:** Chad/Rita  
**Rating:** NC-17 (Chita gets busy)  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, not making any money, Rita deserves to die.  
**Word Count:** 3,496  
**A/N:** OMG! She finished the 2nd chapter! O_o

  


_   
**Unhappily Ever After 2**   
_

_____________________________________

Chad listened with half an ear to the story Hopper was regaling him with about the new waitress in the café across the street from his apartment – he was more interested in thinking about Rita. They'd been out on several dates so far, but hadn't progressed past some very, _very_ heated make out sessions. He tried to be understanding about it, and didn't really want to rush her but every time he so much as thought of her, he got so hard it hurt. Even _thinking_ about thinking about her was making him react and Chad hurriedly dropped a folder into his lap to hide the evidence of his growing arousal. If there was one thing he didn't need, it was his partner thinking that he was getting off on hearing details of the waitress' apron.

He'd sent her flowers the day after their first date and had been planning on doing so every time they'd gone out, but apparently she was allergic or something. She'd laughed and laughed when he'd shown up last weekend with a bunch of plastic ones, so he figured he'd hit upon the perfect solution. Only thing wrong with that was, he couldn't buy those for her all the time because they'd pretty much stick around forever and take up space.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" Hopper asked suddenly.

Chad smirked. "No. Did I miss anything important besides how you're _not_ going to get her to go out with you?" Hopper glared at him, and he stood to reach for his keys. "I'm going for coffee."

His phone rang as he headed out the doors, and he was pleased to find that it was Rita calling him. "Are you free for lunch?" she asked. Chad could hear the paging system of the hospital in the background, and the other nurses talking to each other about different patients.

"Sure," he replied, smiling. "As long as you're not too busy, I can come pick you up."

"Maybe you could bring food and meet me here?" Rita asked hopefully. "I don't like to be gone too long," she added in explanation.

"It's no problem," he assured her, his mind already rushing forward to plan how he was going to lure her somewhere semi-private. There was just something about the idea of her in her uniform that always got his imagination fired up… After he'd dropped off the coffee and waited for the lunch hour to arrive, it was finally time to go see her. Rita's response was almost all Chad could have wished for; she jumped into his arms as soon as she led him off into an empty room. "So, I guess that means you're glad to see me?" he joked.

Rita nuzzled his neck and drew back to smile up at him. "No, I just do this to every man who brings me lunch."

"I hope not."

He bent to try his luck at another kiss, but Rita just laughed and brandished her plastic fork at him. "Back, villain! It won't kill you to wait longer than ten seconds for a kiss," she scolded him.

"But it might, and then you'll have to give me CPR which is technically a kiss _anyway_. And there would be forms to fill out, so really… you're better off just succumbing to the inevitable and bringing your lips right back here, Nurse Foster," Chad joked.

Rita gave him a playful scowl and snatched the Styrofoam container from the bag he'd brought in with him. "Leave me alone while I eat."

He tried to take it back. "Just a peck on the lips and I'll leave you-"

The look she gave him was almost angry. "Chad, I've had to trade a day off next week for an extended lunch break with you and I'm really hungry. Can you stop messing around and just let me eat?"

Chad held up his hands, wondering if she was really that mad over him goofing around. "Hey, sure. Sorry."

She gave him a sunny smile. "Thanks. Oh, this is my favorite! How'd you know?"

He blinked at the abrupt 180 and looked back down at the container, confused. Chad hadn't had much experience with it since the women he'd dated in the past had never been quite like Rita, but he just figured this was what people meant when they said women were a mystery. "I just remembered you saying something about it on the date before last."

"That's so thoughtful!" And then, contrary to her earlier words about not wanting to mess around, Rita leaned over and kissed him on the lips. "You're such a sweetheart – and they all said you couldn't be taught."

"Oh. I guess I surprised them, then," he said awkwardly. Who was 'them', anyway? Shrugging, Chad reached for his own lunch and they ate in relative silence which was only broken by her exclaiming again how thoughtful and sweet he was. She hopped into his lap after they'd eaten and whispered how much she wanted him to take her out that Friday, hinting that their relationship might progress to the next level afterward, so it was certainly no skin off his nose to agree to the date.

  


_ _ _ _ _ _

He couldn't stop staring all throughout dinner; she was the loveliest thing he'd ever seen in his life. Rita had her hair piled on top of her head in some way that should have looked messy but God, was it hot. It exposed the long column of her neck and made him want to kiss her there, never mind how many people were watching. She had on another dress that was sexy as hell, too; it looked like some sort of toga and the white fabric made her cinnamon skin glow in contrast.

"Close your mouth, you'll catch flies," she teased, reaching across to lay her fingers against his cheek.

"Sorry, you just look… you look really, really beautiful," Chad blurted, awestruck at how perfect she was. Rita looked across at him through lowered eyelashes and just smiled back, lips making a moue that made him all too aware of what she'd obliquely promised him.

All too soon and yet not soon enough, they were finished with their dinner and Rita was toying with the stem of her wine glass and looking up at him. "I had a good time tonight."

"Me, too."

His pulse quickened until he could hear the blood roaring in his ears when she reached across for his hand, running an elegantly manicured fingernail over his palm before she released him. "I'll be right back," Rita murmured, gesturing towards the ladies' room and making some sort of motion towards her hair that he took to mean as needing to fix it. He hadn't seen anything wrong with it, but whatever made her happy.

Rita came back a few minutes later after he'd paid and left a tip for their waiter and Chad smiled as he glanced over at her. "Are you ready to go?" he asked softly, and she reached a hand out to him.

"Yes," she replied just as softly.

He took her hand, marveling once again how soft her skin was and how much smaller she was than him. If he played his cards right he'd find out how the skin on more than just her hands felt. They walked from the restaurant and Rita suggested that they simply collect the car from the lot themselves, instead of simply waiting for the valet to bring it around. Chad didn't mind a bit because it would give him a chance to stay in contact with her.

He was wholly unprepared for a man to step out from behind a large minivan and point a gun at them. "Gimme your wallet," the guy ordered, waving his gun in their direction as he shifted from foot to foot as if he'd never done this before.

Chad frowned. "No. Why don't you just run along before you get hurt, huh, buddy?" He released Rita's hand with an effort – she was clutching at him so hard, he wouldn't be surprised to find bruises on his hand – and moved in front of her smoothly.

"I ain't fuckin' around, asshole. Gimme your fucking _wallet_," their would-be mugger said, his voice rising in panic.

"And I said, _no_. Get out of my face," Chad warned.

"Chad, just give him your wallet," Rita begged, peeking around him so she could see what was going on.

The guy cocked his gun, his hand shaking so badly it was a miracle he hadn't shot himself already. "Listen to your bitch, and hand it over!"

"See, now you're just making me angry. There's no reason to get personal and call her names," Chad growled. "You have no idea who you're messing with." He went for the gun hidden by his suit jacket and the other man panicked, firing the gun. Rita screamed, and Chad felt fiery pain bloom in his left shoulder as the bullet grazed the skin; it figured that the jerk couldn't aim worth shit. "LAPD, jackass," he snarled, pulling his gun and motioning to his badge. "Guess who's under arrest?"

The other guy's eyes widened to the size of saucers as he realized the full extent of his mistake and immediately turned tail to run. Chad's first impulse was to go after him and pound his face into the pavement a few dozen times when he caught up to the bastard, but he remembered Rita's presence just as she clutched at him again. "You're hurt," she said urgently.

He fought the urge to shake her off in irritation and simply reached for his cell phone to call it in while she tried to examine his wounded shoulder. "It's just a graze, it's no big deal," he assured her as he dialed Metro. After giving a description of the thug – he was most likely just some idiot who was trying to prove himself for a gang initiation and Chad didn't hold out much hope for his chances at survival – he hung up the phone and looked down at Rita, who was pressing a wadded up piece of fabric to his shoulder. It looked like it had been her wrap, and now it was ruined as surely as their date had been. "I'll take you home," he sighed, thinking ruefully about their plans for the night. "I'm sorry about all this."

Rita looked up at him, full lips parted slightly. "Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault. I…I just wish I'd never said I wanted to walk to the car. If we'd just used the valet, this wouldn't have happened."

She looked so upset that Chad felt bad for her and tried a joke. "And if my parents hadn't been drunk, I wouldn't even be here right now."

Rita giggled, and got into the car when he held the door open for her. "Come on inside, I need to make sure your shoulder is cleaned properly," she suggested when they arrived at her apartment. He shrugged – why not? – and locked the doors before he followed her up the stairs. She made him take his shirt off, and he hissed at the burn of the rubbing alcohol she used to clean the wound. Rita murmured something under her breath as she bandaged the scrape, nearly making him laugh as she treated him as if his arm had nearly fallen off or something; Chad was busily lamenting his choice of walking to the car when she said something that reclaimed his attention immediately. "You were so brave, standing up to him like that," she said softly, one of her hands sliding across his back before it drifted up to the nape of his neck.

"It wasn't anything special," he assured her. Actually, now that he thought about it, he'd been pretty damned stupid – he could have easily gotten them both killed just because he wanted to show off.

"But still – that was…" Rita trailed off and ran her other hand over his chest. "I've never seen you without a shirt before," she said suddenly.

Chad swallowed hard at the look in her eyes as she examined him, her fingers skimming over his skin and combing through the hair on his chest. "Well, I _had_ planned on taking you out to that Nudist resort in La Jolla but that didn't really work out," he said, then mentally slapped himself. What the fuck was he saying? Jesus.

Rita didn't seem to even hear, she was so focused on running her hands over him and driving him insane. "You're so _big_… and _strong_," she marveled, following the line of hair down his stomach. With her fingertips He sucked in a noisy breath as her tiny hand moved down farther to lightly trace the prominent bulge in his trousers, and Rita hummed in approval. "Can I see all of you?"

"Uh. Yeah," was all Chad could say. She began to work on his belt and he regained enough control over his brain to pull her against him, kissing her hungrily as he moved his hands over her body. Rita panted against his lips and stroked his cock through the fabric of his pants when he worked his fingers up underneath the hem of her dress and fondled between her legs. The silk of her panties were pretty much soaked all the way through when he finally pressed the pad of a finger against the small bundle of nerves and rubbed gently.

She mewled his name and shoved her hips forward reflexively before drawing back, a blush rising to her cheeks. "We shouldn't… not in here," Rita protested.

Chad couldn't see anything wrong with their location, but if she didn't want to he wasn't going to press her. He pushed off from where he'd been leaning against the edge of the kitchen sink and reached for her, easily scooping her up into his arms to carry her into the bedroom. He hadn't been in there before, but scrutiny of her inner sanctum would have to wait until after… a _long_ time after. Chad stripped off the rest of his clothing as fast as he could, pride swelling his chest when he saw the way Rita's eyes widened appreciatively at seeing him fully nude. "I think you're a little overdressed for the occasion," he purred at her, putting his hands on her shoulders to turn her so that her back was to him. "I think we should do something about that."

He lowered her zipper slowly, kissing every inch of skin as it was revealed until the dress pooled at her ankles. Chad knelt to slip off her heels even though he'd much rather she keep them on – he'd have plenty of time later on to convince her to wear them, but for right now he didn't really want her to stab him in the ass with them accidentally. A playful nip just below the curve of her right buttock made her squeal and slap at him, so he kissed his way back up to pop the clasp of her bra. Nuzzling her neck, Chad drew the straps off her shoulders and down her arms before sliding his hands back up to cup her breasts. "_Chad_," she sighed, leaning back into his touch.

Her head lolled to one side as his fingers teased her nipples into hardness, circling, flicking, and gently squeezing until Rita pressed her hips back, grinding against the erection he was firmly pressing against the small of her back. "Are you ready?" he asked huskily, unable to take any more. If he wasn't inside her soon, he was going to go insane.

"Yes," Rita whimpered as he let one hand drift down to the waistband of her panties once more. "Do you…do you have…?"

Chad released her to retrieve the condom he'd stashed in the inside of his jacket pocket and showed her before drawing off the last piece of fabric that separated them. "God, Rita – I want you so much," Chad breathed after he turned her to face him once more and looked her up and down. She really was perfect, and he told her so as he drew her to the bed.

Tearing the condom wrapper open with his teeth, Chad pulled it out and rolled it on, encircling the head of his cock with thumb and forefinger and squeezing. Thankfully, that made the urge to come recede a little so that he wouldn't disgrace himself – he needed to make sure he didn't hurt Rita, first. She let out a distressed sound when he moved down to settle between her legs. "Chad, I don't want you to do that."

"I'm not going to hurt you," he reassured her before ducking his head and drawing his tongue over her folds.

"Chad! I'm serious, I don't-" Rita's words blended into a shriek when he slid a finger inside her and she flailed at the bedcovers helplessly as he began to lick at her clitoris. After repeated pulls of his hair, Chad moved back up; she probably needed it so badly, she didn't even want him to go down on her this time, he thought. Well, there'd be plenty of other opportunities to pleasure her that way – he'd make sure of it.

He moved up and Rita reached down to guide him inside, then Chad slowly pressed into her body. She made a soft sound of pain and he looked down at her, concerned. "I'm not hurting you, am I?"  
Chad asked, appalled at seeing the tears in her eyes. He thought he was being careful enough.

Rita shook her head, drawing in a ragged breath. "N-no, I'm fine…just….just put it in all the way and I'll get used to you."

"I don't want to cause you any more-"

"Chad, please just do it," she sighed, brushing the tears from her eyes with the back of one hand. He tried to argue about it again, but Rita just frowned up at him again and reached to put her hands on his waist to urge him forward.

_Damn it_. God only knew how much he wanted to keep going, but he truly didn't want to hurt her – Chad had always prided himself on being a considerate lover and if she was uncomfortable he didn't want to increase that in any way; she was already _crying_, for God's sake. He bit his lip and began to press forward when she urged him to move once more – hopefully Rita was right and she'd get used to him. When he was in all the way, he stopped moving and looked down at her anxiously.

It seemed to take forever, but the lines in her forehead slowly relaxed and Rita's arms slid up around his neck. "Ohhh, that…_mmmm_," she murmured as he shifted within her carefully. "I think…think I'm ready now."

Chad started to move slowly, then faster as she began to moan his name sweetly. His remaining guilt at making her cry disappeared completely as he concentrated on how amazing she felt and when her walls began to clamp down on him, her voice rising to a wail, Chad released the control he'd placed on himself. He came groaning her name and swearing, collapsing off to one side of her after he pulled out and got rid of the condom. "Fuck, Rita…that was…" Chad drew in a shaky breath and let it out, rolling his head over to look at her. "Are you okay?"

Rita pulled the sheet up to her armpits and smiled. "Now, I am." Her brow furrowed slightly as she looked back at him. "But, Chad? Please don't swear when you're…well, you know… I'm just not comfortable with that sort of thing."

The hell? He looked at her in surprise. "Are you serious?"

She bit her lip. "Well, it's just… I really don't like it. It makes me feel like you think I'm a whore or something and I'm not comfortable with that – you understand, don't you?"

"Oh. Uh, okay," Chad said awkwardly. "I don't think you could be a whore if you tried, but…okay."

Rita smiled slightly. "Thank you, Chad."

He moved over to gather her into his arms and she gasped in pain when he tried to guide one of her legs over his. Chad's face fell instantly – he'd forgotten that he'd hurt her. "Oh, I'm sorry…!"

"No, it's okay," she reassured him, giving another wince when she shifted back to her original position away from him. Chad reached out to rest a hand on her hip, rubbing gently as he tried to figure out what he could do to prove that he was sorry – Rita put her hand atop his and squeezed lightly. He moved close enough for her to rest her head on his chest and Chad held her cautiously; soon enough she fell asleep and he was left staring up at the ceiling wondering what he could have done differently.

  


tbc…  
____________________________________


	4. </strong> Unhappily Ever After

  
  
  
  
  


**Entry tags:**

| 

  
[chad shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/chad%20shelten), [day break](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/day%20break), [fic](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [rita shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/rita%20shelten)  
  
  
---|---  
  
**Title:** Unhappily Ever After  
**Author:** [](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/profile)[**ladytalon1**](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/)  
**Fandom:** Day Break  
**Pairing:** Chad/Rita  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, not making any money  
**Word Count:** 4,547  
**A/N:** To get this over with, I made it a double chapter. I hope you're happy for making me write so much Chita :p This chapter: Thrills! Chills! Detweiler!

_   
**Unhappily Ever After 4**   
_

_________________________________

"I don't want that thing in the car with us," Rita pouted when Chad suggested stopping off at the animal shelter to pick up the stray that they'd found in the middle of the road in Las Vegas at the beginning of their honeymoon.

"He won't bite you," Chad assured her. "He was only snapping at you because he was in pain – just lashing out, you know? He didn't mean anything by it."

"It's a _pitbull_, Chad. They eat people," his wife – wife! – insisted.

Chad shook his head at her. "He's not going to eat anyone, Rita. C'mon, it'll only take about ten minutes."

"It has to stay at your place; I don't want dogs in my apartment."

He considered replying that her next-door neighbor was a close cousin to any canine he'd ever seen, and that the other woman had been in Rita's place _several_ times so far, but Chad figured discretion was the way to go. Anyway, the dog was still recovering from surgery so he couldn't walk up the stairs of Rita's old apartment on his own. "He won't be any trouble," Chad promised her as he turned into the driveway of the animal hospital. Rita opted to wait in the car while he went in, and it looked like nurse was actually surprised that he was back – he guessed they got a lot of people dropping off animals and never coming back for them.

"Don't forget to wrap the antibiotic pills in a piece of cheese so he'll eat it, and keep him on soft food for about a week until he gets used to eating. Poor thing," the nurse cooed as she watched the way Chad picked up the groggy pitbull to cradle in his arms. "Bring him back for a check-up in two weeks, but you've got my number if there's a problem and you need to call for any reason." The way she said _my_ number made him stifle a grin, and he eased his left hand into view so she could see his ring. She coughed and looked disappointed, but held the door open all the same.

Rita heaved a loud sigh when Chad opened the back door and placed the dog on the seat. "He'll leave hair all over back there," she complained.

"So I'll stop off at the carwash before we decide to make love in the back seat again," Chad teased. "C'mon, Rita – we couldn't just leave him there. They would've put him to sleep if we hadn't adopted him."

"_You_ adopted him. This had nothing to do with me," Rita reminded him.

"Some nurse you are, not wanting to care for a poor, defenseless…"

"_Killer_. That's what pitbulls do, Chad. They kill people."

"Yeah, yeah… and then they eat them with barbecue sauce and have a little bib tucked into their spiked collar. I already said I'd take care of him," Chad said, starting to get irritated. He forgot his annoyance when she asked him to stop by her apartment so she could pick up another box of her things. Rita had insisted that they keep her apartment 'just in case', whatever that meant – Chad supposed it was good to have another place since they could always sublet it or something. It was hard to find a good location in the city, after all. He reached back to stroke the pitbull's head while waiting for Rita to run up to get whatever clothes she needed and the dog whined softly, trying to lick his hand. "Just a little while longer, then we'll take you home," Chad promised, wondering what he should name the dog. Something manly, like Spike or Killer… well, perhaps not 'Killer' since that would have Rita up in arms as soon as she heard about it… he grinned as he remembered meeting Rita's battle-axe of a mother. Rita would be pissed, but the temptation was just too strong to resist. "How do you feel about the name Meredith?"

Meredith's ears perked up, and Chad made a mental note to buy his new pet one of those collars with names embroidered on them. Everything was falling into place, he thought with satisfaction: just before taking his vacation he'd been officially promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Internal Affairs, he was newly married to an insanely beautiful woman, Hopper was jealous of him for multiple reasons, and now he had a dog.

Rita came out of her apartment lugging a huge box and he leaped out of the car to help her put it in the back – she'd said she only wanted to pick up a small box of clothes! Not that he minded that she wanted to move her stuff in as quickly as possible; Chad was tired of being alone and he was more than ready to start his life with her. He reached out for her impulsively and drew her into his arms to hold her close. "I love you, Mrs. Shelten."

She buried her face into his chest. "I love you too, Chad."

"I love you more," Chad insisted. And after driving home and carrying Meredith in – he'd tell Rita the pitbull's name later – he proceeded to prove it for the rest of the afternoon.

_ _ _ _ _

He was on his way home when he got the message from Rita. _ "Hi honey, dinner's in the fridge; I've gotta go over to Dad's so I don't know how late I'll be. See you later, love you." _ Chad frowned, wondering if this had anything to do with Billy again. Her dumbass of a brother seemed to serve two purposes in life: screwing things up for everyone else, and being a punching bag for their father. Personally, Chad didn't blame Scott Foster one bit for wanting to get in a little boxing practice with the loser… but soft-hearted Rita seemed to be fond of Billy. He couldn't even count how many times the jackass had been sleeping on their couch because he'd been kicked out for not paying rent, trashing the place, gambling with money he'd stolen from Scott… the list just kept getting longer, and Chad's patience kept getting shorter.

Rita swore up and down that Billy was 'acting out' because their mother never liked him that much. Like that was a big surprise? Chad knew from the first moment he'd met Billy that this was one fuckup not even a mother could love, though he hadn't really said as much to Rita. Well, he hadn't said it at _all_ since he was enjoying getting laid on a regular basis.

He was greeted with a joyful howl as soon as he walked in the door, and Chad shook his head to see that Meredith had been gnawing on one of Rita's shoes again. "Damnit, Merry! I just had to buy her another pair last _week_ because you couldn't keep out of the bedroom!" The pitbull yapped and nosed the half-eaten and slobbery pump over to him, wagging his tail so hard he almost lost his balance. Chad sighed and bent to retrieve it just as Merry dove for it again, and they indulged in a small battle for possession of the shoe before Chad let the dog think he'd won and let go. Merry took off for his bed with it, and Chad shook his head again as he went to wash his hands and find something to eat.

Chad turned on the television to catch the last half of the hockey game, warning Meredith to stay away from the couch with the shoe, and settled back against the cushions to watch when his phone rang. "Hey, Rita; did Scott kill Billy yet?" he joked as soon as he picked up. The sound of sobbing nearly made him fall off the couch. "Rita?"

"Ch-Chad? I need your help," his wife said, sounding terrified.

He was already up and going for his wallet and car keys. "I'll be right there and-"

"N-n-no, I'm at the…the station," Rita choked.

"What? You're at _Metro?_ Why?"

She made a soft, helpless sound and started crying again. "Just… please hurry, I'm… I'm so scared."

"I'm on my way," Chad promised, slamming the door on his way out to the car. He drove like a bat out of hell down to Metro, wondering just what was happening. Rita hadn't told him much; he'd never heard her sound so upset. He was favored with a few glares as he came through the doors, but they were all cops he'd raked over the coals a time or two so he ignored the dirty looks and searched until he found Rita in one of the interrogation rooms with a county sheriff's deputy. "What the hell's going on here?" he demanded angrily as he saw Rita huddled on the chair with her arms wrapped around herself. "What'd you do to her?"

The deputy – Buchalter, he saw from the name tag on the man's uniform – turned to him. "Sergeant Shelten?"

"Yeah, this is my wife. But you know that already – what's going on?"

Deputy Buchalter smirked at him. "Like you don't know that your wife was hauling around a dead body in the trunk of her car? Little girl like that doesn't really seem capable of killing someone all by herself. You help her, _Sergeant?_"

Chad glared at the shorter man. "Let's go back to the part about the dead body. There's gotta be some mistake here." He remembered his earlier thoughts about Billy, and turned to Rita. "Did your dad do something to Billy?" This could be easily fixed – no way it could be anything but Scott Foster finally getting rid of Rita's deadbeat of a brother. She was probably just too worked up to explain properly, and the deputy wasn't giving her a chance to talk.

Rita looked up at him and said, "It's… it's not Billy. It's Dad." Holy shit, and he'd been thinking that Billy was the one in the body bag. He felt his mouth drop open as she continued, "I didn't mean to hit him that hard!"

"Whoa! What – you didn't _mean_…? You…you….? Your dad?" He was going to wake up at any moment; this couldn't really be happening. This didn't actually _happen_ to real people, did it?

Buchalter started explaining what had happened – apparently one of the taillights on Rita's car was busted so he pulled her over. She'd started acting suspicious, the deputy said, and he'd made her open the trunk where he'd discovered the dead body of her father. Rita was still crying, and as Chad tried to wrap his mind around the fact that his wife - a nurse - had actually killed someone, Buchalter was looking at him a little strangely.

Suddenly, Chad realized exactly what he'd have to do – and what the deputy was expecting him to do. _Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck,** fuck**._ There was no way he could let Rita go down for this; he knew she hadn't meant to do it and the old bastard had probably deserved it anyway….but that didn't mean he liked having to do this any better. "Rita, why don't you go wait outside for a few minutes?" Chad suggested. When the door closed behind her, he took a deep breath and said the one thing he'd never thought he'd say to another cop. "What'll it take to make this go away?"

The deputy smiled. "As a matter of fact…"

If there was anything he hated worse than the scum he'd helped put away when he'd been in Narcotics, it was a dirty cop… but now here he was making a deal to cover up a murder. Granted, it'd been completely accidental – but he knew it was what he'd have to do. Buchalter's partner, a smaller dark-haired man (what kind of name was Fencik?) leaned against the door and smirked as he got out a cell phone and made a call.

Two hours later, he drove Rita's car back to their house feeling sick to his stomach. Rita was waiting for him inside. "Is…did you…?"

Chad sighed heavily. "I took care of it, don't worry. No one's ever gonna find him." He sank down on the couch and listened with his head in his hands as she blurted out the whole story; how her father had been beating Billy senseless when she'd arrived, how she picked up the flashlight and hit him with it just to make him stop.

"I really didn't mean to hit him so hard," she sobbed, flinging herself into his arms where he held her tightly, murmuring words of comfort he wasn't even sure that he really meant.

Chad's insides still felt like ice when he climbed into bed with her later that night. He'd assured Rita that she had done the right thing to call him, but now she had rolled to the far side of the bed and wasn't looking at him as if _he_ were the one who'd killed someone. Chad figured she was still angry about him telling her that she'd have to go to work in the morning as usual and not let on that anything was wrong, regardless of how she felt. He could just see her blurting out the whole thing to whoever would listen at the nurse's station.

Now he lay awake, staring up at the ceiling and going back over what had happened. He'd been taken to one of the more expensive clubs in LA and introduced to Conrad Detweiler….the man who now 'owned' him. First Chad was instructed to keep in contact with Buchalter and then came the obligatory threats of what would happen to not only him, but to Rita as well if he told anyone about their deal. Then he was given 'a few things to take care of'. "For every decision, there's a consequence, Sergeant Shelten – don't make me regret having helped you," Detweiler said in a tone that made Chad long to wrap his hands around the other man's neck. Helped me, my ass, Chad thought, tossing and turning in an attempt to get comfortable. It was pretty ironic that both he and Rita were guilty of the same things they were so adamantly against; she worked to save lives, and now she'd taken one. He put away dirty cops for a living…and now he was one.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting from Rita, but it certainly wasn't this cold disapproving silence; it was like she was angry with him for helping her. Maybe Rita wanted to go to jail for the rest of her life, but Chad didn't really think so. _Some_ trace of gratitude would be nice, especially since he'd violated the oath he'd taken just for her. Chad reached out and touched her shoulder blade, seeking some comfort of his own, but Rita scooted even farther away from him. Suppressing a sigh, he rolled away from her and stared at the glowing red display of his alarm clock to watch the digital numbers change until it was finally time to get up for work.

  


_ _ _ _ _ _  


  
Chad frowned down at the papers on his desk and reached for a pen to sign off on the report when Haight rapped his knuckles on the door frame. "Your two o'clock is waiting out here – want me to send her in now?" the officer asked.

"Two o'clock? I didn't think I had anyone else today," Chad said absently, scrawling his signature and closing the file. "Who is it?"

"Andrea Battle." Chad raised his eyebrows and Haight explained further. "Brett Hopper and Eddie Reyes' new partner?"

He looked out to see the same blonde he'd been checking out earlier in the week. "That's her?" _Not bad_. "Send her in." His favorable opinion of her soured when he found out what a smart-mouth she was; one of those people who hated authority just because they didn't have any. If he wasn't married, she'd be just the kind of challenge he'd like to take on… but that was out of the question. It was actually kind of fun finally meeting someone who didn't give a crap about the fact he could have her suspended for even looking at him cross-eyed, and he kept her in the office a little longer than was strictly necessary just for the fun of talking with someone who could give as well as they got.

After work, he walked out the front doors of Metro just in time to see Rita standing off to one side talking to…Hopper? The two of them had seemed pretty friendly back when Chad had still worked Narcotics, but ever since his promotion and IA posting he hadn't seen too much of the other man. _I didn't know Rita still kept in touch with him, though_. Chad suppressed an unreasonable surge of jealousy as he saw the way his wife reached out to brush something off of Hopper's sleeve. That was just ridiculous. Rita would never cheat on him, she wasn't that kind of person. "Hey, Rita – what're you doing here?" he asked, not being able to keep himself from putting his arm around her possessively as he turned to his former partner. "Hopper."

Rita ducked out from under his arm to tie her shoes, and turned on him as soon as Hopper left. "What was all that about?" she demanded.

"Uh…am I missing something?"

"You're acting like you own me or something."

Chad was nonplussed. "When did I act as if I owned you? I just came over to talk to you because you were standing here, and you're my wife."

"No, right there! You said that I was _your_ wife."

"But you _are_ my wife! You're certainly not Hopper's wife," Chad frowned. "What's wrong with you? You've been acting strange ever since-" he glanced around and shook his head. "Look, never mind. If you don't want me to talk to you when you show up where I work, then I won't."

Rita threw up her hands, oblivious to the way people were staring at them. "Yes, because this is all about _you_, Chad." She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "Look, I've gotta go."

He caught her hand and pulled her to him gently. "No, don't leave. I didn't mean to make you mad, you know I didn't. C'mon, I'll take you to dinner."

It seemed that no matter what he did these days, nothing was ever right. The situation about her father lay between them like a wall, and Chad didn't know how to fix it – he had to admit that he wasn't the most patient man ever born, but he tried his best to keep Rita happy. Six months after he'd made the deal with Detweiler, they talked less and less and he counted it as a miracle if Rita felt in the mood to make love. He had no idea how to make things right between them, and wasn't exactly sure what had happened in the first place, but he loved Rita and would do anything for her. Surely she knew that!

His steadily deteriorating life took a decided turn for the worse when Chad came home one day after working late to find an ominously empty house. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it… he looked around the living room slowly and walked through to the kitchen. Some of the cupboard doors were ajar, and Chad frowned as he opened one to find only a few cans inside. _That's weird. Maybe some kids doing a food drive stopped by or something, and she cleaned the place out_. Chad grabbed a beer from the fridge, walked into the bedroom, and nearly dropped the bottle onto the carpet at the sight of the closet doors standing wide open with only his suits hanging inside. He backed away from the emptied closet, shaking his head and trying not to come to the conclusion that was staring him right in the face. Sinking down on the edge of the bed without looking, Chad missed by a few inches and fell on his ass. The beer bottle overturned and started leaking onto the carpet, but he just stared at the section of the closet where – just that morning! – Rita's dresses had been hanging.

Later, Chad wasn't sure how long he'd sat there with a puddle of beer soaking into his pants leg while he stared straight ahead of him as if by imagining Rita's clothes in the closet, he would somehow bring her back. A soft but insistent sound finally roused him, and he looked over to see Meredith lying in the hallway with his head on his paws, whining softly. "You can come in now," Chad said dully. Rita had never allowed the pitbull inside their bedroom – it was his bedroom now, he supposed. Merry crawled past the threshold and over to him, snuffling and licking at his hand. "I guess you need to go for a walk, huh?" Merry's tail thumped on the floor in a subdued manner, as if the dog could tell that Chad wasn't really in the mood to play around.

After Meredith's walk, he wandered into the other rooms of the house to see what else Rita had taken with her. There was a yellow sticky note on the computer monitor, and Chad sighed as he turned it on…as soon as the light went from yellow to green, an instant messenger box popped up. _"Chad – I'm sorry that I couldn't be there to tell you to your face but as you can tell, I'm leaving you. We just didn't work out, but I'm hoping that we can still be friends.."_ He stared at the screen a moment before he started to laugh. Chad had heard of people breaking up by a letter; shit, even over the _phone_… but he'd never heard of a wife leaving her husband via instant messager. There was more; details about the divorce papers and how she didn't want him to fight it, and there were even some details he didn't want to read about how he'd tried to control her and her problems with his possessiveness. Given that a person could only type so many words into a text box, there was a screenful of little messages all saying that she didn't want him anymore. Chad read each and every one, feeling a stinging sensation behind his eyes he couldn't afford to indulge in.

As soon as he scrolled to the bottom of the message screen, Chad reached for the computer desk and pulled it away from the wall calmly before yanking the wires from the wall and lifting the CPU and monitor into his arms. Meredith looked up from his perch on the couch as Chad carried his armful of equipment to the front door and down the steps, setting the computer down on the pavement just behind his car. Another trip inside, and he gathered up the keyboard and mouse. When all the computer equipment was arranged neatly, Chad slowly climbed into the SUV and started the car before putting it into reverse and backing over the pile. His neighbor, nosey old Mrs. Marino, stopped even trying to pretend she wasn't staring as he drove over the computer five more times until he was finally satisfied.

Chad pulled out of the driveway and headed to Rita's old apartment – he supposed he knew why she hadn't wanted to get rid of the place after all. He wasn't sure what he'd do when he got there; he shouldn't even be around her at all, in his frame of mind. Chad still couldn't quite believe that she'd left him. He thought he'd given her everything she wanted but he was figuring out the hard way that he hadn't, not by a long shot. All that remained of his world dropped out from underneath him the moment he turned the corner and saw Hopper's car parked behind Rita's, and he felt as if he couldn't breathe. _This isn't happening to me, it's not…_ Memories of all the times Hopper had been riding with him when he'd stopped in to see Rita at the hospital, or when his ex-partner had come over for dinner, came back to him with an immediacy that left him feeling sick. Rita with her hand on Hopper's elbow, brushing away lint, tucking his tag back into the back of his shirt collar… _I can't deal with this. Anything but this_. His tires made a loud squealing sound as he turned the car around sharply but if the couple inside Rita's apartment heard it, he'd never know.

It was like he was sleepwalking through his days and nights, and only being harder on the poor bastards chosen by IA for routine investigations helped him cope. Andrea Battle was elevated to the status of his main target, especially since she was Hopper's partner and she'd unlucky enough to have been dating Eddie Reyes before he'd been fired for drug use. The divorce papers were delivered to him on an especially shitty day, and he was forced to stand there and listen while the courier gleefully told him – and everyone else within earshot – exactly what they were, and could he sign for them please? He was going to bring Hopper down if that was the last thing he did, and considered making his ex-partner's life a living hell as the least he could do in repayment.

As Rita had requested, he didn't contest the divorce even though everything inside him screamed for him not to simply let her go like this. Drinking didn't make the pain of losing her go away, but it dulled it a little until he finally realized he couldn't go about the rest of his life in a fog. He'd never been overly friendly with anyone at Metro, but hadn't given up his dream of joining SWAT – none of the men or women on the various teams had never had problems with IA at all, and his first hesitant overtures of friendship were surprisingly well received. He got along well with Steve Romero, the SWAT officer in charge, and the lieutenant suggested that he use his weekends for training with the rest of the team. At first he was sure it was only because of position within the force as well as his size but Chad was pleased to find out that they actually seemed to like him. After Rita, he'd learned that you could never tell about other people, after all.

His attempts at a reconciliation were all for nothing; Rita just got annoyed whenever she saw him so he tried to stay away from her and forget about how she made him feel. Most days he still woke up and expected to find her laying next to him and then he realized he'd been only dreaming that she'd come back to him, and that he was still alone. Chad got through his days the best way he knew how, retreating behind the reputation he'd garnered as the head of IA where he didn't have to offer any part of himself to anyone… until the day he was told he was expected to attend old Ernie's retirement party and his life took another turn he'd never expected.

  


~_the end_~

________________________________________

(kind of)


	5. </strong> Unhappily Ever After

  
  
  
  
  


**Entry tags:**

| 

  
[andrea battle](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/andrea%20battle), [chad shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/chad%20shelten), [chadrea](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/chadrea), [day break](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/day%20break), [fic](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [rita shelten](http://midnightatnoon.livejournal.com/tag/rita%20shelten)  
  
  
---|---  
  
**Title:** Unhappily Ever After  
**Author:** [](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/profile)[**ladytalon1**](http://ladytalon1.livejournal.com/)  
**Fandom:** Day Break  
**Pairing:** Chad/Andrea, ~~Chad/Rita~~  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, not making any $$  
**A/N:** Yay, it's back to all Chadrea, all the time!

_   
**Unhappily Ever After - Epilogue**   
_

_____________________________________

Chad sighed as he thought back to that retirement party he'd decided to attend at the last minute, and glanced over at his seatmate who was still plainly wishing she'd traded with someone else. This probably wasn't the best introduction to the team that Sarah could have gotten, he mused. Another look around the plane showed the others either sleeping or falling asleep, and Chad stretched his legs out as far as he could as he settled back to wait until their flight landed so he could call Andrea. The very idea that his thoughtless comment could possibly make her leave him in much the same manner as Rita had was unacceptable – yet if they were on separate continents, there really wasn't a whole lot he could do to stop her.

He folded his arms across his chest miserably and tried not to think of what his life would be like without Andrea… but of course that thought kept creeping into his mind until he felt like he was going crazy. After what had to be the millionth glance at his watch and at the window shade, Chad saw that it was finally getting lighter outside and they'd be landing in less than two hours. There was no way he'd be getting any sleep until after he'd had a chance to call Andrea, and resolved to call her as soon as they landed… it would be around 3:00 in the morning so he'd get her voicemail or even just their answering machine if he called the house, but she'd know as soon as she woke up that he was sorry.

After waiting impatiently for what seemed like forever, they were finally disembarking and going through customs. As soon as he slid his passport back into his jacket pocket, Chad headed straight for where he'd seen signs for phones and frowned as he dug in his wallet for the international calling card Andrea had bought for him the day after they'd found out that he would be leaving for Germany. Taking a deep breath, he punched in the code and their home phone number… and was surprised when Andrea answered after only one ring. "I'm sorry," he blurted, the prepared speech going right out of his head.

"…Chad?"

Who else would be calling her to apologize at 3:30 a.m.? Chad glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one else was close enough to hear his conversation. "Yeah. I thought you'd be asleep or something, so I was going to leave a message." He thought of how stupid that sounded, and hurriedly added, "But it's good that you're awake so I can talk to you instead."

"I couldn't sleep," Andrea said, her voice sounding funny. Oh, God. She was going to break up with him after all. "And I was actually hoping you'd call as soon as you got there, so I'd know you were safe." That was a good sign, wasn't it? If she'd wanted to break up with him, she wouldn't care if his plane crashed or not.

Chad shifted from foot to foot, trying to think of something else to say to her since she wasn't making this very easy for him. "Well, the plane didn't crash or anything." She made a noncommittal sound, and he couldn't stand it any more; he had to know one way or the other. "Are you…do you want…I mean…" Chad drew in a deep breath to calm down enough to stop stammering, and it suddenly came to him why her voice sounded so odd. "You weren't…crying, were you?"

"What? _No_," Andrea said - sounding scandalized, still slightly stuffed-up, and like she was lying through her teeth.

Relief left him feeling weak, and he leaned against the wall slightly. "Good, then. Your sinus medicine is in the other bathroom, even though you don't need it."

Andrea sniffled into the receiver. "Well, I don't."

"I never said you did," Chad pointed out. "I really am sorry, Andy. I shouldn't have said what I said," he apologized. "I love you."

"You were mean."

"I know."

"You may have hurt more than one of my feelings."

"I know."

"You said that Rita had bigger breasts than I do," she insisted.

He grinned at the boldfaced lie. "That's because she does." On the other end of the line, Andrea gave a scandalized snort and he could hear buttons being pressed. "Oh, wait, wait – no, don't hang up..! C'mon, Andy. Everyone know she wears push-ups. I liked yours better ever since I met you for the first time."

A soft giggle told Chad she'd just been messing with him. "I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye yesterday," Andrea confessed, sniffling again. "I guess I just like to hold on to being mad sometimes, even when it's not worth it."

They talked for a few minutes more until he started to yawn, and she yawned too. "I guess I'd better go get some sleep… you, too."

"I can't sleep without you," Andrea grumbled.

Chad smiled, able to picture the disgruntled look on his girlfriend's face as she was talking to him. "Me neither, but we have to try anyway. I miss you," he added, not looking forward to the thought of a bed without Andrea in it. "I'll call you later, okay?"

She sighed so loudly he had to hold the receiver away from his ear slightly. "Okay. I miss you, too."

"I love you," he reminded her softly.

Andrea sniffled again, and he wished he was there so that he could hold her. "I love you too, sweetie."

After exchanging a few more murmured endearments, he reluctantly hung up the phone and turned to see Faith standing right behind him with a huge smile on her face. "What?" he demanded.

"That's so sweet!"

"No it's not," he assured her. "Get out of my face."

She snorted and gave his chest a patronizing pat. "You'll be all right one day, Shelten. C'mon, we're heading for the hotel – did you sleep at all? You look like shit." He gave her a shove and walked over to pick up his bag, feeling like a ten ton weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It was going to be a tough four weeks without Andrea, but he'd make sure to stay in touch with her so his experience with Rita stayed in the past where it belonged.

As his weary head hit the pillow that held no scent of Andrea's favorite shampoo, Chad guessed Faith was right. He'd be all right… one day.

~_fin_~  
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